Adventures in Being a Librarian
by AquarianParadox
Summary: Kisuke and Shinji are probably the most different librarians to ever exist, but it doesn't stop them from working together or loving each other. Urahira, that is their relationship name right? AU Oneshot.


Once upon a time in Karakura town, there was a quaint if not slightly run down library. It was run by two men who couldn't disagree anymore on how to actually run a library.

There was Hirako Shinji, the technical head librarian, who abhorred following regulation when it came to arranging the sections in the library as well as shelving things in the proper order. It was thanks to him that the nonfiction didn't start with 000 and end with 900, but instead started with 900 and ended in 000 much to the irritation of the assistant librarian.

Said assistant librarian was Urahara Kisuke and if asked about Shinji's unique opinions on library management his only comment would be, "No."

For all of Shinji's rebellion of doing things in a normal manner Kisuke was his opposite preferring to do things in the most efficient way possible. It was this dynamic that made their library very chaotic, but at the same time utterly unique and loved by the community.

One Wednesday morning the normal chaos of the library was exacerbated by the fact it was story time and the usual employee, Ishida, who was responsible for it hadn't shown up. Which left Kisuke to do the task as Shinji pulled rank because he just didn't want to do it.

And that is how Kisuke ended up surrounded by toddlers with a pair of reading glasses on his nose as he read them 'The Retired Kid' by Jon Agee. The first of many slim children's books he was supposed to read over the next hour.

Despite having grumbled about the task it really was something Kisuke enjoyed once he got over the slight terror that he'd be heckled and booed by children who couldn't even properly enunciate yet. There was something utterly amazing in being the one who help further the literacy of young children and to watch them smile and gasp as the stories played out. Although he couldn't say he enjoyed trying to do all the characters voices. No matter how hard he tried Kisuke always felt like he wasn't doing it right.

What he didn't know, as he read to the young'ins, was that Shinji had other, more devious, reasons for wanting Kisuke to read to the children than previously stated.

Shinji simply loved watching him read to the kids. The way he animatedly, if not occasionally awkwardly, read the words outloud and bringing stories to life was so endearing. Not to mention the glasses, far be it from him to deny having a slight thing for men who needed glasses to read. Then there was the way Kisuke would ruffle his hair when asking the children what book they wanted next smiling in a placating way as they all yelled out different things. Really Kisuke was his most adorable when trying to please a roomful of toddlers.

Gazing at him from the check out center Shinji listened raptly to his soothing voice tell tales of a cute nature. That is until Jinta, a snot nosed brat after his own heart, slammed an armful of books in front of him.

"Oi creepy man check these out for me."

Rolling his eyes at the kids rude behavior Shinji drawled out sarcastically, "Did'ja you find what you wanted easily honored customer?"

To which Jinta scoffed, "You know I didn't bastard. You replaced the regular fiction with the junior books again."

Scanning the books before handing them to the kid Shinji smiled toothily at Jinta. He was quite proud of that, when Kisuke had seen it this morning he had sighed so deeply it verged on a groan.

Absently he shooed the brat away in order to continue spying on Kisuke being adorable, only to find that an hour had flown by and everyone was packing up to leave. A little disappointed Shinji decided he would just have to bribe Ishida not to come in again next week by giving him another shift with Orihime. While Kisuke would kill him if he knew that he was doing so it was entirely worth it.

As Kisuke slouched back to the check out center carrying a large stack of books that needed to be sorted and put away by someone else, because those who read never had to shelve, Shinji gave him his best shit eating grin. As usual it never worked like it would on anyone else and Kisuke just smiled back amiably if not with a touch of vengeance in his eyes.

Pretending to go back to work Shinji jumped when Kisuke dumped the giant stack of children's books right next to his keyboard. The pile was taller the monitor.

"Your turn," Kisuke sing songed before actually starting to do real work which had been neglected by his superior for the past hour.

Shinji eyed the stack with distaste.

"No."

A raised eyebrow was all he got in response before Kisuke resumed typing at his computer.

Glaring at the stack he analyzed it as one would their arch nemesis. If he just ignored it and left it to someone else Kisuke would be grumpy but eventually would forgive him, he always did. But if he actually did it then while Kisuke would be satisfied Shinji would have done work he didn't want to do. It really was a conundrum.

And it was solved when a bright eyed Orihimed skipped into the library to aide them as she usually did when she wasn't working at the library or studying.

Kisuke was the first to greet her with a soft smile, "Hello Orihime-chan! Here to help or visit?"

She laughed gayly and responded, "Can't I do both Kisuke-san? Or do I really have to do one or the other? Because I don't know which one I would choose."

"Of course you don't have to choose Orihime-chan, now what do you want to do first?" he asked cheerfully.

Before she could say anything Shinji pushed the stack of kids book toward her. "Would you like to put these away?"

Despite having sounded as pleasant as he possibly could toward Orhime, Shinji got his hand slapped by Kisuke's pen.

"No," Kisuke intoned with a slight frown as his boss shook his stinging hand.

The frown spread to Orihime as she wondered aloud why she wasn't able to shelve them. Seeing her distraught was something neither Kisuke nor Shinji enjoyed and so they tried to reassure her in their own special ways.

"Don't worry Orihime-chan, Shinji just needs to shelve them on his own because he is a lazy bastard.

"Don't fret it is this morons fault fer tryin to make me do work."

They said at exactly the same time leaving Orihime to blink and try and sort out who said what over the other. After a moment she giggled and tilted her head to the side and looked at them both as though she had just had an epiphany.

"You know you two might argue less if you just kissed instead of arguing. Tatsuki does that with her boyfriend you know."

Turning around she left to search the library for something to do leaving the two men to think over her unconventional bit of wisdom. Both blonde men were blushing, quite prettily at that, and it took Shinji a minute to snap out of the embarrassment and back into his usual snarky self.

"The girl has a point Kisuke," he practically purred leaning in close to the other mans face.

A/N: In character what does that mean?


End file.
